Court bypasses ultrasound case
on Nov 12, 2013 at 9:34 am
The Supreme Court did not grant any new cases on Tuesday, and it turned aside another move by Oklahoma to put limits on women’s access to abortion. Without comment, the Court refused to hear an appeal by Oklahoma officials seeking to revive a law requiring that women seeking abortions be shown ultrasound images of the fetus before the procedure can occur. That followed the Court’s dismissal last week of the previously granted review of an appeal by the state on its power to restrict medical abortions — that is, with drugs rather than surgery.
The new Oklahoma case was Pruitt v. Nova Health Systems. The Court had asked for a response to that case last May, but then held onto it without action, apparently awaiting the Justices’ handling of the other case (Cline v. Oklahoma Coalition for Reproductive Justice).
Among other cases denied review were a plea to clarify when individuals working as interns are entitled to get paid at the federal minimum wage level (Kaplan v. Code Blue Billing & Coding, Inc.) and a test of when it is legal for an artist to copy much of another artist’s copyright work, based on a claim of “fair use” of the original work (Cariou v. Prince, 13-261). As usual, the Court provided no explanation for the denials of review.
Two Justices dissented as the Court refused to hear a case on the reliability of a witness’s in-court identification of a burglar. The Court declined review of a Second Circuit Court decision in Unger v. Young (13-95), with Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., dissenting in an opinion joined by Justice Antonin Scalia.
